Who is Mtis? Statistics Canada numbers open window on debate

The president of the Manitoba Metis Federation says the 2016 census numbers for Mtis in Canada are wrong but his objections point to a larger debate about who in fact is Mtis.

"People just think that because you have potentially First Nation blood in you that you can quantify yourself as Mtis," David Chartrand said Tuesday. "I can guarantee there's not 125,000 Mtis Nation citizens in Ontario."

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The 2016 census asked people whether they were Aboriginal, and then further broke that down to First Nations, Inuit and Mtis.

There were 587,545 people who self-identified as Mtis, a growth of more than 50 per cent since 2006, with the most in Ontario, where there were just over 120,000. Almost 90,000 in Manitoba self-identified as Mtis.

But Chartrand says a lack of understanding prompted many people to incorrectly self-identify as Mtis, a word with roots in the French for mixed blood.

"Our nation is probably about no more than 400,000, from parts of Ontario all the way to parts of British Columbia and all of the Prairies. That's our population. We know it. We know where we live, we know who we are," he said.

Chartrand's organization strictly regulates who gets Mtis Nation citizenship cards.

They must show they trace their ancestry back to the mixed First Nations and European people who lived in Western Canada during the time of the fur trade.

"It's not simply you just get a little check mark and say I'm Mtis," Chartrand said. "You have to prove your identity and prove your connection to the historical and collective homeland of the Mtis Nation. It's a long process."

However, not everyone agrees with Chartrand's definition.

A 2016 Supreme Court ruling about Mtis rights launched some infighting among Mtis about who meets the definition.

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The Daniels vs. Canada ruling states the Mtis and non-status Indians are "Indians" under the Constitution and thus fall under federal jurisdiction, so they must turn to Ottawa when negotiating rights or for new programs and services.

The ruling determined Mtis status must be granted on a case-by-case basis, with the generally agreed upon criteria including ancestry and community ties.

The Mtis Federation of Canada has a broader criteria for membership than the Manitoba Metis Federation.

"The true history of the Mtis is very inclusive," said president Robert Pilon said following the Daniels ruling.

"If you want to have a true representation of Mtis in Canada, they got to make sure all Mtis are at the table," Pilon said in 2016. "Not just pick and choose just because one group has been around longer."

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A Statistics Canada analyst said the census did allow a wide variety of people to identify as Mtis, but more data is being gathered to learn exactly what people mean by the term.

"We understand that there's no single definition of Mtis that's endorsed by all Mtis groups in Canada," said Vivian O'Donnell.

Statistics Canada is trying to find out what people mean when they self-identify as Mtis, she said.

Statistics Canada added two new questions to the Aboriginal Peoples Survey for those who said they're Mtis.

"We asked them, 'Do you have a card or certificate issued by a Mtis organization that identifies you as Mtis?' and if they say yes, we ask what Mtis organization issued the card or certificate," O'Donnell said.

"We also have other questions about sense of belongingtrying to capture some cultural connectednessso there's a lot of research potential there to better understand how people are identifying with the Mtis nation or the Mtis population."

'Capital MMtis'

Jacqueline Romanow, chair of the department of Indigenous studies at the University of Winnipeg, says she uses the terms "capital M Mtis" and "small m Mtis" in her classes to define two separate groups.

Small m Mtis are people with mixed blood, which is how many people interpret the word, which has its roots in the French for mixed blood, Romanow says.

Capital M Mtis are members of the Mtis Nation who trace their ancestry back to the Red River Settlement and Rupert's Land before the creation of the province of Manitoba, she says. She is a member of that group.

Those Mtis developed a culture with its own language and traditions in a specific region, she says.

"This is a unique place in history and in time, where you have the genesis of a whole new kind of culture," she said.

"This didn't happen everywhere a new culture with a new language, new traditions that evolved that are very unique and specific."

There are also specific rights given to those who can trace their heritage to Red River Mtis, including land entitlements tracing back to the creation of Manitoba, when Mtis were promised land that many never got.

Chartrand said only those who meet the Manitoba MtisFederation's citizenship requirements are entitled to those rights.

People who are not members of the Mtis Nation but want to be identified as part Indigenous should embrace their heritage, but it is not Mtis, he said.

"We worked too damn hard to get where we are as a nation," he said. "We do not take kindly to others who are just trying to jump in to something we've been working on for 150 years."